EMDR treatment with two school-based referrals

School referral for behaviour is many times a last resort for teachers and administrators at a loss to deal with a student's distress. This post illustrates two such cases and the effective use of EMDR to clear underlying trauma at the core of the observable behaviour. It raises the issue of age of trauma with critical developmental tasks of children and implications for treatment. The first is a single trauma at age 11 and treated at age 13. The second occurred at age 3 and treatment occurred at age 7. L. is a 13 year old girl whose family had moved three times in the past 3 years and at her new school, she became extremely distressed in the morning to the point of not being able to stay in class. The underlying trauma took place 2 years ago, and did not manifest itself behaviourally until the current move. Using EMDR, resolution was achieved in a short period of time. C. is a 7 year old girl referred because her fears were preventing her from normal activities of her grade level. The sound of fire alarm bells were particularly distressful. The family recently moved from another country and reported no prior history of this type of behaviour. Interweaving EMDR in the treatment process was effective in treating past traumas, some of which appeared to have no verbal memory and culminated in her current distress. Parental understanding and involvement in using EMDR was crucial to the treatment.

Conference

English

Barbara Bethiaume

Bethiaume, B. (2001, May). EMDR treatment with two school-based referrals. Poster presented at the 2nd EMDR Europe Association Conference, London, England